- AST SpaceMobile Bluebirds 8 and 10 arrived in Cape Canaveral for launch in June
- Bluebird 9 has shipped from the manufacturing facility in Texas and will be traveling with 8 and 10 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
- Bluebird 7 failed to reach orbit in April
The satellite mobile broadband space is getting spicy. On the heels of SpaceX's IPO prospectus, which the company filed on May 20, AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird satellites 8 and 10 have just arrived in Cape Canaveral from Texas to prepare for a June 2026 launch.
Bluebird 9 is en route from the manufacturing facility in Texas. These three satellites will travel aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 to reach low-Earth orbit (LEO). No official date is set for the launch yet.
In April, AST SpaceMobile's Bluebird 7 failed to reach the correct orbit after it launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch vehicle. This time, the company is launching with SpaceX, which is quickly becoming a serious competitor in the satellite broadband sector.
According to the SpaceX IPO prospectus, Starlink delivers broadband data and communications network via approximately 9,600 Starlink broadband and mobile LEO satellites to 10.3 million consumer, enterprise and government customers across 164 countries as of the end of March 2026. In the first three months of 2026, SpaceX said its Connectivity segment "generated revenue of $3,257 million, income from operations of $1,188 million, and Segment Adjusted EBITDA of $2,087 million."
AT&T and Verizon are among a coalition of operators, vendors and hyperscalers that have backed AST SpaceMobile (Nasdaq: ASTS) to date. The company has raised $4.9 billion over 16 rounds, according to Crunchbase data.
Read all of our coverage of AST SpaceMobile here.